


Haunted

by sprocket



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 18:39:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2517800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprocket/pseuds/sprocket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sneaking into the Jedi Temple was a common dare among the Senate and diplomatic brats.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Haunted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galfridian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galfridian/gifts).



It was a traditional dare among the Senate and diplomatic brats, Leia rationalized. No one would notice one more speeder of revelers in Coruscant's wild Remembrance Day celebrations.

"Come _on_ , Princess!" The Honorable Atriar's daughter hissed. Zorjaa tapped a heavy scaled hand on the speeder’s control console. "Are you in or not?"

Leia slipped into a Coruscanti-style jacket and jumped into the back of the speeder, next to Jamo’ib. The speeder jerked into motion.

"Slow down, Zorjaa!" Leia snapped. "Do you want to get pulled over?"

The Trandoshan eased off the accelerator as the speeder drifted into a traffic lane. "I'm saving our arrest for something much bigger," she said airily.

Bruenor and Jamo'ib giggled. Leia rolled her eyes as they sped through the world-city's brightly lit night. She tried not to think of the Rebellion contacts her father probably was meeting under cover of the same riotous festivities she and her friends were using to elude official notice of their more frivolous excursion.

Jamo’ib leaned forward, shouted over the night wind into Bruenor’s ear. “Aren’t your people supposed to be Force sensitive? Maybe you’ll find us a handsome Jedi Knight tonight.” They laughed giddily at the idea of meeting the shade of a centuries-dead warrior on the forbidden grounds. 

The ruins of the old Jedi temple were said to be haunted by more than Imperial sentinel droids. They certainly _looked_ ominous tonight, under clouds so low they nearly brushed the temple's crumbled dome. Leia shivered as the speeder landed in an abandoned garden, small cold breezes plucking at her hair and jacket. 

The garden had probably been a meditation space, she realized, as she studied a weed-choked artificial stream. It wound through a series of seemingly randomly placed rocks and gnarled, overgrown trees. Their leaves whispered like an Alderaanian funeral grove, in tones that seemed on the edge of resolving into sentient speech. 

She swallowed, tried to shake off a chill as she followed her friends into the cave-dark temple. Inside, they activated weak handlights. Zorjaa’s and Jamo'ib’s muffled chatter died away as they crept through the blasted halls, damp from the foggy clouds. Leia studied the faded burn marks on the walls and floor, tried to ignore the sense of being watched. Bruenor was uncharacteristically quiet, sweeping her head horns back and forth uneasily. Leia dropped back to join her. "Are you all right?" she whispered. The other two girls turned, drifted back toward them. 

Bruenor shrugged one shoulder, a Gotal gesture of uncertainty. "This place gives me the creeps," she said. "It reeks of death. Can't you feel it?"

Zorjaa blinked her great eyes. Jamo'ib shook her head. Leia glanced around the great hall they were crossing. She shook her head. "It seems... sad," she said, reluctantly. Grief and bewilderment seemed to ooze out of the stones and moss-streaked walls of the desecrated temple. _It shouldn’t be like this,_ she thought. The temple held only mocking shreds of the legendary Jedi serenity. She looked at Bruenor, also troubled by the sense of unbalance Zorjaa and Jamo’ib were immune to. The feeling of loss made her heart ache, the way it had at her mother’s funeral. 

She spun around at a stinging touch. "That wasn't funny!" she hissed at Jamo'ib.

" _What_ wasn't funny?" the other Human girl whispered back. "I didn't-"

Leia slapped a hand over Jamo'ib's mouth. All four listened hard, but Leia identified the new sound first: a sentinel droid's repulsor.

Thinking fast, she caught all her friends' eyes and put a finger to her lips. Then she cautiously, quietly crept back the way they'd come.

Back in the speeder, lost among the flow of city travelers, Jamo'ib asked, "How did you know? If we’d been caught, the Imperial Guard would’ve…” She trailed off. No one was _quite_ sure what the Guard did with trespassers found in the Jedi temple. Leia had asked her father, once. He’d refused to tell her. 

"I didn't," Leia replied. "Someone slapped my arm. Bruenor, I guess."

Bruenor shrugged one shoulder. "Not me," Zorjaa said. "Guess that place _is_ haunted."

"That's ridiculous," Leia snapped, but she rubbed an ice-cold spot on her jacket shoulder as she said it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [raspberryhunter](http://raspberryhunter.dreamwidth.org/) for rapid & excellent beta-fu.


End file.
